Can the souls in purgatory pray for us here on earth?

[Gorgias]

Yes. Jesus Christ himself describes the soul of a dead rich man in torment interceding for his living brothers in Luke 16:19-31.

Aah… but he’s not in Purgatory! Moreover, his intercession isn’t efficacious!

 

[PJM]

=irishcolleen45;9788984]I thought I had read recently that souls in purgatory can pray for us here on earth. If so, can you cite a reference for that?

Catechism of OUR catholic Church

1475] In the communion of saints, “a perennial link of charity exists between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are expiating their sins in purgatory and those who are still pilgrims on earth.** Between them there is, too, an abundant exchange of all good things.”** In this wonderful exchange, the holiness of one profits others, well beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause others. Thus recourse to the communion of saints lets the contrite sinner be more promptly and efficaciously purified of the punishments for sin."

EXPLAINATION:

The Communion of saints has three “parts”

Those in heaven

Those in purgatory awaiting heaven and being perfected for heaven

and all those here on earth that are members of Christ “One Body”

Just as we are able to give aid and comfort to them; they too can do the same for us as can the saints.

**1St. Cor. 12: 11-14 **“But all these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to every one according as he will. For as the body is one, [SINGULAR] and hath many members; and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body, so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free; and in one Spirit we have all been made to drink. For the body also is not one member, but many.” **AND verses 26-29 **“ And if one member suffer any thing, all the members suffer with it; or if one member glory, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members of member.[SINGULAR] And God indeed hath set some in the church; first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers then tongues, interpretations of speeches.”

God Bless,
pat/PJM

 

[midori]

Hmm… no, I don’t think that this holds water – a soul in Purgatory no longer acts on its own behalf (which is why we’re told to pray for them!), so there’s no opportunity to obtain merit on one’s own behalf, either…

Ah, sorry. I was thinking more in terms of earning merit for myself for performing actions on behalf of someone in Purgatory who is not able to perform those same actions for themselves. I, as a living person, can earn merit for myself by performing charitable acts such as x, y, and z. One charitable act involves praying for the souls of those in Purgatory that they attain the beatific vision that much sooner. I can’t tell if you’re suggesting that I can earn merit for feeding the hungry and tending to the sick, but I can’t earn merit for myself by praying for those in Purgatory?

Oh, yeah, absolutely! There are some things attributed to Aquinas and to Augustine that are completely at odds with later Church teaching! However, your statement was completely fallacious: ‘Aquinas disagrees with me on X. Remember, he was wrong about Y, too!’. One has nothing to do with the other, and the assertion, on its face, is prejudicial…!

Probably my fault for writing so late at night. I didn’t mean it in that way at all-- I meant it more in an educational “people have been wondering about that for a long time and here’s an example of prominent saints whose opinions conflict with each other on the subject”, rather like, “Lamarck once argued that giraffes developed long necks by stretching to reach high-up food, and Darwin thought taller giraffes did better in the gene pool because they had more access to food and were more likely to pass on traits for longer necks, but modern study suggests giraffes with the longest necks are the best fighters and the most likely to mate, so depending on what point in history you found yourself wondering about giraffes’ necks, you’d probably have a different ‘definitive’ answer to your question, and obviously, people continue to think about giraffes’ necks.”

 

[Todd_Easton]

Aah… but he’s not in Purgatory! Moreover, his intercession isn’t efficacious!

Well…he sure isn’t in heaven. If he is in hell undergoing eternal punishment, then all the more reason to think that the souls undergoing only temporary punishment can intercede for the living. The original question did not ask whether their intercession was efficacious or not. However, since those in Purgatory are righteous, though not yet completely sanctified, and since Scripture says that the prayer of a righteous man is very efficacious (see James 5:16), the implication is that the prayers of those in Purgatory are efficacious.

 

[crystal_waters]

Of course they can pray for us, read 958 of the catechism vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p123a9p5.htm

 

[irishcolleen45]

Thank you all for your replies.